This is a bit tricky to explain without more math. The sine wave is 1-dimensional and the ocean wave is 2-dimensional, but both have the property that the ampl

This is a bit tricky to explain without more math. The sine wave is 1-dimensional and the ocean wave is 2-dimensional, but both have the property that the amplitude at a point (say, f(x) or f(x, y)) is a real number. In QM, to describe position, we have a 3-d wave whose amplitude is complex. This is obviously hard to visualize. But consider for a moment a particle confined to one dimension. Its wave function is a function f(x). This function can also be thought of as a vector in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space called the L^2 function space[1]. In quantum computing, we generally deal with two-dimensional Hilbert spaces (and their tensor products), which you can sort of think of as discrete waves with only two points. This is because, while a particle can take on an infinite number of positions, there are only two possible spins (for example). If you follow Prof. Aaronson's lectures, these are the sorts of "waves" that matter. Leaving that aside, you could imagine two 1-D sine waves (with different speeds and/or phases) interfering, just as you could two ocean waves. The difference in QM is that you're summing complex numbers. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square-integrable_function https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square-integrable_function